How to Start Your Own Homemade Candy Business

With the economy in shambles and so many people out of work, it may not seem like a great time to be thinking of starting your own business. However, despite the conclusions that most people draw, in a period of economic tribulation a variety of special opportunities can be taken advantage of. For example, it seems counterintuitive, to say the least, that as people struggle with little money, prices continue to rise. In a time like this, an entrepreneur who can figure out how to bring a quality product to the market at a low price is likely to find immense success. When people are cutting back costs and finding the necessity to eliminate non-essentials from their budget, their desire for luxury items actually increases. To be able to give those same people the ability to bring those little enjoyments back into their lives is a ticket to wealth.

While candy in itself is a relatively inexpensive commodity, specialty handmade candy is not. If you are considering starting your own homemade candy business, there are a few steps you can follow that will nearly ensure your new business’s success. Before even thinking about opening up shop, the most important thing to do is to pick and fine tune your product or products. Take a trip to a variety of successful candy stores and do some research online to determine what type of candy is the most popular and why. Try that candy for yourself. You should be able to figure out what it is about the candy that makes it so delicious. Ideally, try to find a popular product that is typically imported or sold as a luxury item at a higher cost. If people are willing to pay a good deal more for this product, you can imagine what would happen if you could cut that cost down while retaining the quality. This will take careful planning and a little ingenuity, but it can make or break your business.

Once you’ve figured out precisely what your product or products are going to be, fine-tuned the recipes and found a way to make them at a low cost, it’s time to move to the next stage of your business. Namely, that next step is to determine what type of business you will be. There are a variety of options with small businesses of this type. You can choose to have a storefront and sell the old-fashioned way, sell your product exclusively online, sell your product on consignment in other candy stores, or a combination of all three. The first of those three options requires the most capital at the outset. You can always open up a storefront after you’ve begun to turn a profit. Either way, naming and branding your product are the next important step to take after making the decision of what type of business you will start with. Believe it or not, a clever name and brand can be the difference in whether or not someone is willing to try your product. You can have the greatest tasting candy in the world, but you will need people to try it before you will profit from it. Again, here it’s important to look at what other businesses are doing. What are the most popular competitors and what are their makers doing with names and branding? Branding can go a lot further than a name, package and logo. Think of branding as the way in which people see your product and what they associate it to. For example, if you manufactured beef jerky, you could associate your product to cowboys and the Wild West. Packaging and advertising would reflect that and help complete the image. The possibilities are endless though and it’s important to look to what is popular in the culture and what is currently doing well in your market. However, originality is critical up to a certain point as you do not want your product to appear too similar to a well-known product, giving the impression of an off-brand knock-off – unless, of course, that is your strategy.

Once your business has picked up and things are going well, it will be time to consider expansion. Any business that is not growing is dying, so it’s important to always look onward and upward. At some point you will want to consider mass distribution. This means having your product available in grocery stores and convenience stores nationwide. This will be the time to consider confectionery warehouse storage and shipping means. However, don’t let this worry you. Once you’ve reached this point, you’ll know you have been successful – which, undoubtedly, your bank statement will happily reflect.

Amila Gamage is the blogger behind Food Corner. She is a Sri Lankan living in Singapore and shares her cooking adventures in this blog. Apart from recipes,you will also find travel,health and kitchen inspirations in this blog. She is a self employed professional and the owner of Sihela Consultants.(www.sihelaconsultants.com) She started writing this blog in 2011 and still continuing.